Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 24/07/2023: Goodbyes to the Web



  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • Gravity Circuit: First Impressions

        I only have vague memories of Mega Man... Mega Man *anything* (X, Zero, one, forty-two etc.). I admit I never played through any of them, but I must have played one or two levels on friends' consoles in the 1990's. Apparently this means I'm not the best to judge Gravity Circuit for its roots... I am probably similarly familiar with 2 other games that Gravity Circuit reminds me of - Shovel Knight (I think of it when using downwards attacks with Kai) and Steel Assault (surprised I haven't heard more mention of the similarities with this recent title).

        As of the time of writing, I have played through the initial stage, and then the one with the steel factory or whatever the one is where you can hop in something like a mech... And I'm definitely planning to play more! I'm not very good at it - I play on Easy and I still die pretty often. Part of it is the controls for me. Maybe I'm slower at internalizing control schemes than I was in my teens, now that those are a couple of decades behind me.

      • Rain Check

        Heavy rain this morning, the trip to the lake postponed. Instead we watched the Blue Jays squeak past the Mariners, then headed to our friends' place for supper. Pasta for the main course, chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert (I told you she was a good baker).

        In the reclaimed time this afternoon we gave one of the dogs a bath and I spent a few hours hacking on my forever project. I've put well over a thousand hours into it, over the years. Probably several multiples of that. I give it away on my website, offer it for free (with optional donation) on itch. I've made a few hundred bucks in a few years. Enough to cover my domain and hosting, break even, and that's enough.

    • Technology and Free Software

      • Hello world!

        Hello there! I'm a decade Linux veteran here to spread some information about the scene.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • I think I'm done with the web

          The title is a bit melodramatic, I know. I can't realistically abandon the web since I work in web technologies, and a lot of the stuff I have to do day-to-day requires the web. I guess I just feel tired. Something about the recent collapse of Twitter and the subsequent clamour of wannabe replacements has soured me to the "web" and the impossibility of wresting it away from greedy hands.

          The web was (at one point) an exciting place to me. Lots of interesting people writing about the things that fascinated them for no other reason than they wanted to write about it. They could potentially find a new community of people who share their passion, but equally they may be shouting into the void alone. It didn't matter. People just wrote and drew and shared.

        • Cool Capsule Of The Week: D Moonfire

          D Moonfire is organized in such a way that you can actually explore it. Its index isn’t a large list of everything on the capsule. Instead, it has links to some recent gemlog posts, short excerpts describing some locations with links scattered throughout, and a footer that appears on every page with links to even more locations. Because of this, it can be easy to lose your bearing after exploring and not know whether you’re reading the end of a random page, Dylan Moonfire’s gemlog, his biography, or the index. Surprisingly, this isn’t really a problem because you can always just go the the parent directory, the capsule index, or use one of the links in the footer to get around.

        • Advancing toward beddie bye time

          Oh wow, Gemini just got an order of magnitude better for me:

          Doctor Who Zone

          It was on the order of something like three decades ago that I started plowing through Doctor Who, a journey lasting through the first seven Doctors. Much of it was on good 'ole (public) broadcast TV, but I'm pretty sure I've some DVD's laying around somewhere.

      • Programming

        • Only One Script

          Sometimes there is a need to run only one instance of a script. Additionally, one may want to know when the script last ran or if the script is running how long ago it started. Various implementations of this pattern have various problems: the lock could fail, allowing multiple instances to start, or a stale lock could prevent any instances from starting. Failures involve manual intervention, and there may be additional cleanup work depending on exactly what went awry. Another thing to worry about is a script simply not running because 02:30 AM on a particular Sunday does not exist, or exists twice—thanks, daylight saving time!

        • Today's coding lesson: Head Up Ass Recursion

          As I've mentioned probably n+1 times too many, my beef with liberals began in the 1990s, when I started increasingly reading that "old white males" were the cause of all the world's ills. I was quite liberal up to that point, complete with irregularly-scheduled vehement arguments with my birth family. I still remember how great I felt when Clinton/Gore announced balancing the budget. I also remember thinking Joe Biden was a vile asshole back then.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft-Connected Sites Trying to Shift Attention Away From Microsoft's Megabreach Only Days Before Important If Not Unprecedented Grilling by the US Government?
Why does the mainstream media not entertain the possibility a lot of these talking points are directed out of Redmond?
[Video] 'Late Stage Capitalism': Microsoft as an Elaborate Ponzi Scheme (Faking 'Demand' While Portraying the Fraud as an Act of Generosity and Demanding Bailouts)
Being able to express or explain the facts isn't easy because of the buzzwords
Microsoft ("a Dying Megacorporation that Does Not Create") and IBM: An Era of Dying Giants With Leadership Deficits and Corporate Bailouts (Subsidies From Taxpayers)
Microsoft seems to be resorting to lots of bribes and chasing of bailouts (i.e. money from taxpayers worldwide)
 
GNU/Linux in Kyrgyzstan: From 0.5% to 5% in Eight Years
the country is almost the size of the UK
Justice for Victims of Online Abuse
The claims asserted or pushed forth by the harasser are categorically denied
[Meme] Senior Software Engineer for Windows
This is becoming like another Novell
Links 18/05/2024: Deterioration of the Net, North Korean IT Workers in the US
Links for the day
Windows in Lebanon: Down to 12%?
latest from statCounter
Links 18/05/2024: Caledonia Emergency Powers, "UK Prosecutor's Office Went Too Far in the Assange Case"
Links for the day
US Patent and Trademark Office Sends Out a Warning to People Who Do Not Use Microsoft's Proprietary Formats
They're punishing people who wish to use open formats
Links 18/05/2024: Fury in Microsoft Over Studio Shutdowns, More Gaming Layoffs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 17, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, May 17, 2024
Links 18/05/2024: KOReader, Benben v0.5.0 Progress Update, and More
Links for the day
[Meme] UEFI 'Secure' Boot Boiling Frog
UEFI 'Secure' Boot: You can just ignore it. You can just turn it off. You can hack on it as a workaround. Just use Windows dammit!
The Market Wants to Delete Windows and Install GNU/Linux, UEFI 'Secure' Boot Must Go!
To be very clear, this has nothing to do with security and those who insist that it is have absolutely no credentials
In the United States Of America the Estimated Share of Google Search Grew After Microsoft's Chatbot Hype (Which Coincided With Mass Layoffs at Bing)
Microsoft's chatbot hype started in late 2022
Techrights Will Categorically Object to Any Attempts to Deny Its Right to Publish Informative, Factual Material
we'll continue to publish about 20 pages per day while challenging censorship attempts
Links 17/05/2024: Microsoft Masks Layoffs With Return-to-office (RTO) Mandates, More YouTube Censorship
Links for the day
YouTube Progresses to the Next Level
YouTube is a ticking time bomb
Journalists and Human Rights Groups Back Julian Assange Ahead of Monday's Likely Very Final Decision
From the past 24 hours...
[Meme] George Washington and the Bill of Rights
Centuries have passed since the days of George Washington, but the principles are still the same
Daniel Pocock: "I've Gone to Some Lengths to Demonstrate How Corporate Bad Actors Have Used Amateur-hour Codes of Conduct to Push Volunteers Into Modern Slavery"
"As David explains, the Codes of Conduct should work the other way around to regulate the poor behavior of corporations who have been far too close to the Debian Suicide Cluster."
Video of Richard Stallman's Talk From Four Weeks Ago
2-hour video of Richard Stallman speaking less than a month ago
statCounter Says Twitter/X Share in Russia Fell From 23% to 2.3% in 3 Years
it seems like YouTube gained a lot
Journalist Who Won Awards for His Coverage of the Julian Assange Ordeals Excluded and Denied Access to Final Hearing
One can speculate about the true reason/s
Richard Stallman's Talk, Scheduled for Two Days Ago, Was Not Canceled But Really Delayed
American in Paris
3 More Weeks for Daniel Pocock's Campaign to Win a Seat in European Parliament Elections
Friday 3 weeks from now is polling day
Microsoft Should Have Been Fined and Sanctioned Over UEFI 'Lockout' (Locking GNU/Linux Out of New PCs)
Why did that not happen?
Gemini Links 16/05/2024: Microsoft Masks Layoffs With Return-to-office (RTO) Mandates, Cash Issues
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 16, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, May 16, 2024
Ex-Red Hat CEO Paul Cormier Did Not Retire, He Just Left IBM/Red Hat a Month Ago (Ahead of Layoff Speculations)
Rather than retire he took a similar position at another company
Linux.com Made Its First 'Article' in Over and Month, It Was 10 Words in Total, and It's Not About Linux
play some 'webapp' and maybe get some digital 'certificate' for a meme like 'clown computing'
[Meme] Never Appease the Occupiers
Freedom requires truth. Free speech emancipates.
Thorny Issues, Violent Response
They say protests (or strikes) that do not disrupt anything are simply not effective. The same can be said about reporting.
GNU/Linux in Malaysia: From 0.2 Percent to 6+ Percent
That's like 30-fold increase in relative share
Liberty in Liberia? Windows Falls Below 10% and Below iOS
This is clearly a problem for Microsoft
Techrights Congratulates Raspberry Pi (With Caution and Reservations)
Raspberry Pi will "make or break" based on the decisions made in its boardroom
OSI Makes a Killing for Bill Gates and Microsoft (Plagiarism and GPL Violations Whitewashed and Openwashed)
meme and more
The FSF Ought to Protest Against UEFI 'Secure Boot' (Like It Used To)
libreplanet-discuss stuff
People Who Defend Richard Stallman's Right to Deliver Talks About His Work Are Subjected to Online Abuse and Censorship
Stallman video removed
GNU/Linux Grows in Denmark, But Much of That is ChromeOS, Which Means No Freedom
Google never designs operating systems with freedom in mind
Links 16/05/2024: Vehicles Lasting Fewer Years, Habitat Fragmentation Concerns
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Reaches 6.5% in Canada (Including ChromeOS), Based on statCounter
Not many news sites are left to cover this, let alone advocate for GNU/Linux
Links 16/05/2024: Orangutans as Political Props, VMware Calls Proprietary 'Free'
Links for the day
The Only Thing the So-called 'Hey Hi Revolution' Gave Microsoft is More Debt
Microsoft bailouts
TechTarget (and Computer Weekly et al): We Target 'Audiences' to Sell Your Products (Using Fake Articles and Surveillance)
It is a deeply rogue industry that's killing legitimate journalism by drowning out the signal (real journalism) with sponsored fodder
FUD Alert: 2024 is Not 2011 and Ebury is Not "Linux"
We've seen Microsofers (actual Microsoft employees) putting in a lot of effort to shift the heat to Linux
Links 15/05/2024: XBox Trouble, Slovakia PM Shot 5 Times
Links for the day
Windows in Times of Conflict
In pictures
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 15, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 15, 2024